Nikolai Karetnikov

Nikolai Nikolayevich Karetnikov (Russian: Николáй Николáeвич Карéтников; June 30, 1930 in Moscow – October 9, 1994 in Moscow) was a Russian composer of the so-called Underground – alternative or nonconformist group in Soviet music.

Karetnikov studied at the Central Musical School (1942-1948) and the Moscow Conservatory (1948-1953) where his teachers were Vissarion Shebalin (composition), Tatiana Nikolayeva (piano), Igor Sposobin and Viktor Tsukkerman (theory). He also studied privately with Philip Herschkowitz, a pupil of Berg and Webern. He was influenced by music of the New Viennese school and was a firm supporter of twelve-tone technique. His ballets Vanina Vannini and The Geologists were performed at the Bolshoi Theatre with choreography by Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasiliev. However, the authorities found the music unacceptable. It was criticized, and then banned from the performances in the Soviet Union for decades.

His Symphony No. 4 (1963) received its first performance in 1968 in Prague, just before the Soviet army invasion to suppress the Prague Spring. His third ballet Little Zaches Called Zinnober was performed at the Hanover Opera House (1971) in the composer's absence, because he was not given permission to travel abroad. His main activity at that time was writing incidental music for theatre, film and television.

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